End Soft Sentences For Assaulting Police
IT IS “not good enough” that offenders jailed for assaulting emergency service workers receive on average less than 12 weeks in prison, according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.
Data from the Ministry of Justice data since November 2018 shows that offenders jailed for assaulting emergency workers received an average sentence of just 2.6 months.
The data covers the period in which the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act has been in force. The Act doubled the maximum jail term to 12 months.
The statistics showed that only 13% of criminals faced jail after assaulting an emergency worker and just 18% were handed a fine since the Act was introduced.
A total of 8,647 individuals had so far been prosecuted under the Act.
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent said: “There needs to be a mandatory sentence when there’s an assault on a police officer that results in an injury.
“We’ve seen officers in South Yorkshire recently who’ve been almost throttled unconscious by people. A mandatory sentence for that would be the only deterrent.
“At the moment there’s a postcode lottery with courts, and courts that have got low conviction and prison referral rates are just continuing to do that when police officers are assaulted. It’s not good enough.”
Steve pointed out that if trials were at magistrates’ courts they had the power to give six-month prison sentences, and that they should give that full six months for an assault involving injury against a police officer. He said: “That should be the starting point.”
He said that at the moment criminals think they can get away with assaulting officers.
He explained: “There’s an absolute sea change in the way people take police on, and people who are willing to assault police officers.
“I’ve been in the job 17 years, nearly all of it frontline, and I’ve seen the attitude towards police officers completely change. People don’t care. It’s very sad. It’s a social issue as well, not necessarily just a sentencing issue. But respect for police officers has gone downhill.”
Steve called the courts “a toothless tiger” and said anyone who assaulted an officer and left them with any kind of ongoing injury should go to prison. He said: “It won’t take long for that message to get out.”
PFEW Chair John Apter said: “The fact that nearly nine out of 10 individuals who are charged under the new Act walk free from a court is a disgrace and an insult.
“This Act was intended to protect police officers, act as a deterrent, and punish those who have no regard for the rule of law. While we welcome the high conviction rate, a few weeks in jail is certainly not a sufficient penalty for any assault that could have devastating personal impact on my colleagues and their families.”